Pareto Analysis

A Part of the Q-DART Toolset

The "Pareto Principle," also known as the 80-20 rule, is now a common rule of thumb in business decisionmaking. It is based on the observation that 80 percent of a problem commonly stems from 20 percent of its causes. In terms of quality improvement, the Pareto Principle can help direct interventions to where they are needed most and will be more cost-effective.

The Q-DART team is currently developing a graphic spreadsheet tool based on the Pareto Principle that allows organizations to explore data with respect to demographics and performance characteristics to immediately focus attention on counties (or other areas) of greatest concern. For quality of care issues, the Pareto Principle can address such questions as: Which counties account for 80 percent of a health plan's members who have not received a given test? Answers to such questions can be quickly interpreted from the graphic outputs generated by this tool.